Vinegar Syndrome Pictures presents a Sunrunner Films production from director Austin Snell–They Call Her Death! And stick around after the screening for an in-person Q&A with director Austin Snell!
On the wild frontier of the American prairie, Molly Pray is on a bloody crusade against the criminal forces that have wronged her. She shows no mercy, leaving a trail of bodies in her wake on a mission that ultimately strikes at the heart of the American identity and the notion of manifest destiny. But for Molly Pray – who has the embodied specter of death on her side – this isn’t political. This is personal.
They Call Her Death is inspired by Euro acid-westerns, 70s exploitation films, shot on 16mm, has great practical effects, and is bloody as hell. Not to mention the cherry on top–a very cool Morricone-esque score!
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Encores added! Step into a world where folklore nightmare and innocence walk hand in hand as we present the long-awated Soviet classic Viy! This hallucinatory delight of Eastern European cinematic magic is sure to satisfy fans of gothic and folk horror! Get ready to be haunted.
Viy is Soviet cinema’s first officially sanctioned horror film—and it doesn’t hold back. Adapted from Nikolai Gogol’s macabre tale, this supernatural fever dream follows a hapless seminarian forced to spend three nights praying over the body of a witch. What begins as eerie restraint explodes into phantasmagoric spectacle, complete with flying coffins, demonic hordes, and otherworldly visions rendered with wild, hand-crafted ingenuity.
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Our second Volunteer Of The Month pick goes to Hillary, who has chosen Frida Cinema favorite Ana Lily Amirpour’s A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night, also doubling as an entry into our 21st Century Cult series!
Set in the fictional Iranian ghost town of Bad City, the film follows a chador-cloaked vampire (Sheila Vand) who stalks the night on a skateboard, preying on men who underestimate her. Shot in sumptuous black-and-white, it’s a hauntingly stylish tale of loneliness, justice, and bloodlust—where underground rock, spaghetti western swagger, and quiet longing swirl into something fierce and unforgettable.
Part vampire noir, part feminist revenge fantasy, and entirely its own hypnotic beast, A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night is a genre-smashing cult sensation—equal parts Sergio Leone, Jim Jarmusch, and graphic novel fever dream. A bold debut that announced a major new voice in genre cinema, this is arthouse horror with some serious bite!
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Can’t decide between a classic Godzilla film and a cup of Earl Grey tea? Well, you’re in luck! Gorgo, the UK’s legendary contribution to mid-century monstermania, is the latest entry in our Hallucinations series!
Irish fishermen net an enormous lizard off the coast and sell it to a London circus. It’s the biggest thing to hit the city . . . until the little buddy’s mama arrives to take custody! The movie that inspired Spider Man co-creator Steve Ditko’s comic book adaptation, Gorgo is a furious firestorm of reptilian wrath, amplified by the shrieks of the innocent! Oh boy!
Hosted by Polygon’s editor-in-chief Chris Plante, Hallucinations is a monthly event that spotlights movies that challenge our expectations of story, style, and “good taste”. Plante will introduce each film with some behind-the-scenes history and critical context. With Hallucinations, The Frida Cinema wants to build a communal space for lovers of Weird Cinema. We invite guests to bond over films that change what we expect from the medium, the world, and themselves. So come early, stay late, make friends, and watch something strange, surprising, or just shamelessly sick.
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Our 21st Century Cult series dives headfirst into psychological horror and comes out with one of the most claustrophobic, nerve-shredding films of the 2000s—Bug. Adapted from Tracy Letts’ stage play (he also wrote the screenplay), this fevered two-hander finds director William Friedkin (The French Connection, The Exorcist, Sorcerer, To Live and Die in L.A.) stripping things down to the bone: one motel room, two broken people, and a mounting delusion that morphs into full-blown apocalypse.
Ashley Judd gives a career-best performance as Agnes, a lonely, traumatized waitress holed up in a cheap Oklahoma motel. When she meets Peter (an always-electrifying Michael Shannon), a drifter with a haunted past and a theory about government-implanted bugs living under his skin, the two fall into a spiral of shared madness. What begins as a strange romance rapidly mutates into something terrifying, intimate, and hallucinatory—culminating in an operatic crescendo of love, paranoia, and self-immolation.
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Cinematic Void is invading The Frida again as they present the new indie trip from director Joshua Erkman–A Desert!
A photographer’s road trip takes a dark turn when he befriends a reckless couple, plunging him into a nightmarish neo-noir spiral of unpredictable horror.
Stick around after the film for a Q&A with Joshua Erkman, Kai Lennox, and Sarah Lind moderated by James Branscome of Cinematic Void!
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Join us as our friends at VAALA present a very special screening of Daydreamers, the brand new, highly-stylized, and extremely dramatic Vietnamese vampire film. from director Timothy Linh Bui. And as an added bonus, stick around after the screening for an in-person Q&A with the director himself!
Saigon, present day. Vampires, once predators of the night, are all but extinct. The few who remain cling to a desperate truce to not kill. But in the shadows, a brother’s thirst awakens, igniting a dark desire that will pit him against his own kind, shattering the fragile peace and plunging the city into a bloody new era.
Thank you to our friends at Dark Star Pictures for setting us up with this awesome screening!
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Join us on Tuesday, April 15th at 7:30PM, as we once again partner with the nationwide Science on Screen® program to present The Devil’s Backbone, Guillermo Del Toro’s chilling ghost story from 2001. And make sure to stick around after the screening for a pre-recorded 21 minute presentation on the Neurobiology of Horror Movies by Dr. Lauri Nummenmaa!
ABOUT THE FILM
Spain, 1939. In the last days of the Spanish Civil War, the young Carlos arrives at the Santa Lucía orphanage, where he will make friends and enemies as he follows the quiet footsteps of a mysterious presence eager for revenge.
ABOUT DR. LAURI NUMMENMAA AND THE PRESENTATION
Ever wondered what happens in your brain when you watch a horror movie? Dr. Lauri Nummenmaa will explore the neurobiology of fear, explaining how filmmakers use techniques like vicarious simulation and unpredictability to create a chilling experience. We’ll uncover the scientific reasons behind our paradoxical love of horror and how it allows us to explore dangerous situations from the comfort of a movie theater.
Dr. Lauri Nummenmaa leads the Human Emotion Systems laboratory at the Turku PET Centre and Department of Psychology, University of Turku in Finland. He earned his PhD in neurocognitive mechanisms of social attention from the University of Turku and conducted postdoctoral research at the MRC CBU in Cambridge, UK. Dr. Nummenmaa has published over 150 scientific articles on the brain basis of emotions and social cognition and his research focuses on the neural mechanisms of human emotions and social interaction using various neuroimaging and behavioral techniques.
ABOUT SCIENCE ON SCREEN
Science on Screen® is an initiative of the Coolidge Corner Theatre, with major support from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, and their grant initiative brings science to cinemas nationwide. The Coolidge Corner Theatre’s series has enhanced film and scientific literacy with this popular program, which launched at the Coolidge in 2005 in partnership with the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation and its pioneering nationwide film program. Since 2011, Sloan has awarded the Coolidge over $4 million to develop and administer Science on Screen programs around the US through partnerships with other nonprofits. The Coolidge has in turn awarded 393 grants totaling over $2.5 million to 121 film and science-focused organizations in 44 states (plus Washington, DC) across the country. Learn more at scienceonscreen.org.
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A young mother, contending with a rare brain condition and desperate to save money for her daughter’s future, takes a risky job from a mysterious woman with a dark past, and gets entangled in a web of revenge, deceit, and murder. Shot in magnificent 16mm and co-written with the magnetic lead actress, Ariella Mastroianni, Gazer gazes fondly back on the masters of the 70s paranoid thriller while keeping itself grounded firmly in the cutting-edge of today’s independent filmmaking.
From Cannes Film Festival to Fantastic Fest, this indie noir is a potent reminder of how exciting American independent filmmaking can be!
“Critic’s Pick! Marrying the manic paranoia of ‘After Hours’ with a ‘Memento’-esque unreliable protagonist and touches of flesh-bending body horror that could be ripped straight from ‘Videodrome,’ ‘Gazer’ is the kind of debut that should restore your lost faith in independent cinema.” -Indiewire
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Our A24orror series comes to a very spooky conclusion with Bring Her Back, a disturbing descent into psychological dread from directors Danny Philippou and Michael Philippou (Talk To Me).
Bring Her Back tells the story of a brother and sister that uncover a terrifying ritual at the secluded home of their new foster mother. With another great performance from Sally Hawkins and a number of horrifying sequences, it’ll have you thinking long after you’ve left the theater.
Brace yourself for a haunting you won’t forget.
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